Houston, are you happy?

By Alyson Ward |
March 19, 2014

To celebrate International Day of Happiness, post an idea for spreading happiness on the Acts of Hapiness virtual wall.

How do you share happiness? That's what a magazine called Live Happy wants to know.

Thursday is the International Day of Happiness, an annual observance declared by the United Nations in 2012. The idea came from the Kingdom of Bhutan, which adopted a Gross National Happiness Index to argue that a nation's happiness is as crucial to its progress as its gross national product. In 2012, the tiny nation took its idea to the United Nations, and the U.N. General Assembly declared March 20 an International Day of Happiness.

On the first International Day of Happiness last year, people in Hong Kong practiced laughing yoga, and a flash mob in Washington, D.C., offered hugs to strangers. To mark the day this year, the new bi-monthly magazine Live Happy is staging "Acts of Happiness" events in 20 cities, including Houston.

Want to join in? Come downtown. An Acts of Happiness wall - 10 feet tall, 7 feet long and bright orange - will be out in front of City Hall (901 Bagby). Between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., everyone's welcome to fill out an "Acts of Happiness" sticky note and stick it to the wall.

The idea is to share what you do to spread happiness to others, said Joseph Panetta, communications chief at the magazine.

"Science shows that happiness grows when you share it," he said. "It's not about hoarding it; it's about spreading it around." The Acts of Happiness campaign was designed, he said, "to show how simple and easy it is to spread happiness."

Panetta offers an example: A mother and daughter near Seattle report they make lunch for the local volunteer firefighters once a week to show their appreciation and spread some joy. But sharing happiness doesn't have to be that elaborate, Panetta said. "Even just saying 'thank you' to your barista who gives you your coffee," he said, can make everybody's day a little better.

Those who can't make it downtown can join in online: Go to actsofhappiness.org and fill out a card for the virtual Acts of Happiness Wall or tweet about happiness using the hashtag #happyacts.